The billionaire capitalised on widespread disillusionment and the divide between whites and minorities, between the college educated and the working class, says James Oliphant

Students for Trump at Pennsylvania State University couldn’t wait for Donald so they built their own wall, writes Caroline O’Doherty

NEXT week Americans vote in an election with by far the greatest global impact. In 2012, when Obama defeated Romney, 129.1m people voted — 53.6% of those entitled to. If that turnout is repeated, then, and if pre-election polls are of any value, more than 50m Americans will vote for Donald Trump. How many more choose to do so will decide the election and who becomes the world’s most powerful person.

They comprise 22% of the US electorate and are decisive, but they do not vote uniformly and while they want a president of belief, he or she does not have to be of their faith, says Jonathan Alter

A handful of vacation homes. A car elevator for his four-car garage. A wife whose hobbies included show horses.

If a third party candidate, such as Mitt Romney, runs in the upcoming United States presidential election and neither Trump or Clinton get a majority (270) of electoral college votes the Speaker of the House Paul Ryan will decide who will be the next President.

With US Republicans sharply split over a front-runner they cannot unite behind, a new group is trying to push the country’s top elected Republican, Paul Ryan, into the White House race.

Donald Trump has come under attack from former US presidential nominee Mitt Romney, who urged fellow Republicans to shun the property tycoon for the good of the country and party.

Donald Trump will not become US president because the voters realise it is a serious job, Barack Obama said.

Donald Trump has professed his love for women and said he would be their best advocate if elected president, dismissing the firestorm of his own making that has consumed the Republican presidential campaign.

Former US Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney will not run for president in 2016.

Mitt Romney’s declaration that he is considering a third shot at the White House after being a two-time Republican presidential loser was widely greeted with disdain at a national gathering of Republican activists.

Mitt Romney, the 2012 Republican presidential nominee, will address a gathering of Republicans in California today that will mark his first public comments since making it known that he may run again in 2016.

Hillary Clinton’s family was "dead broke" and saddled with legal bills when she and her husband left the White House, the former first lady said at the start of a high-profile book tour that could precede a 2016 presidential campaign.

For New Jersey governor Chris Christie, the road to the White House in 2016 has suddenly become a little bumpy — but it’s not closed.

André Cassagnes, inventor of the Etch A Sketch toy that generations of children drew on, shook up, and started over, has died in France.

Might you have enough on your plate with friends and colleagues bending your ear about their misfortune on the sixth or the bunker shot they nailed on 18, without the world’s top golfers wrecking your head too, with their triumphs and despairs and might-have-beens?

The school shooting in Connecticut is likely to reignite the debate surrounding the purchase of firearms in the US.

It seems Monty Burns has the solution to the US economic woes — and the Irish are key to his plan.

US President Barack Obama will host his former political rival Mitt Romney for a private lunch at the White House today, their first meeting since the election.

AMERICAN presidential politics never really takes a break these days, so the circling contenders and their gurus are already focused on 2016.

Mitt Romney has none. Barack Obama has lots. Bill Clinton has an abundance. Charisma, a combination of presence, power and warmth, is key to success — and you can learn it.

Mitt Romney says President Barack Obama won re-election last week because of the “gifts” he had provided to blacks, Hispanics and young voters and because of his effort to paint Mr Romney as anti-immigrants.

A RECENT opinion poll revealed 96% of Irish people would have voted for Barack Obama in the US election so why, if we hate Republicans so much, is the State’s attitude to abortion an identikit copy of that party’s pariah fringe?

Mitt Romney had a website ready to go had he won the presidential race.

Republicans reeling from their second presidential loss in a row engaged in some soul-searching but were at odds on how far the party must change to remake its image.

America moved today from the bitter election campaign that gave President Barack Obama a second White House term towards a test of whether Republicans and Democrats are now ready to set aside their deep partisan divisions and legislative gridlock.

He is the first US president in recent history to win re-election by a smaller margin than he received four years earlier, and now Barack Obama must address the issues which have made him less popular with his electorate.

World leaders hailed President Barack Obama’s sweeping re-election, with allies pledging to deepen cooperation with the United States on fighting the world economic slump and maintaining security across the globe.

His lease renewed in trying economic times, President Barack Obama claimed a second term from an incredibly divided electorate and immediately braced for daunting challenges and progress that comes only in fits and starts.

President Barack Obama’s re-election erased the last major threat to his signature healthcare reform law, but left questions about implementation as the focus shifts to tackling the mounting US deficit.

Voters in Oklahoma approved an amendment to the state’s constitution to end affirmative action programmes in state government that had been designed to increase the hiring of minorities and women in the state’s 115 agencies.

Florida Democrat Earl K Wood and Alabama Republican Charles Beasley won their elections but will not take office.

President Barack Obama’s re-election, coupled with Republicans’ continued hold on the House, gives both parties a chance to rethink, and perhaps undo, the bitter partisanship that has gripped Washington for four years and frustrated Americans who see big problems going unsolved.

It was not just a victory for President Barack Obama, it was validation for the number-crunchers and statistical model geeks, including a New York Times blogger who became a target for conservatives.

Four more beers — the Offaly publican who poured a pint for US President Barack Obama last year has offered him a free drink on his next visit to Ireland.

Faced with US election results coming after printing deadlines, Belgian newspapers found novel ways round the problem.

A second term and a Twitter record — with much to celebrate, a picture of an intimate embrace with his wife Michelle has become US President Barack Obama’s most popular tweet ever with over half a million retweets and counting.

Irish President Michael D Higgins has told his newly re-elected US counterpart Barack Obama he hopes bilateral relations between the countries will prosper during his second term in office.

Mitt Romney won the Republican presidential nomination as a “turnaround man,” whose capacity to reinvent companies, and the 2002 Olympics, could be transferred to the nation and its troubled economy.

We warmly welcome the re-election of Barack Obama as president of the US.